great piece from ed knocke

Bill Pickett is a legend in rodeo lore. Tommy Cook hopes he can just follow his footsteps.

Pickett, an African-American cowboy from Texas, invented steer wrestling while working for the Miller's 101 Ranch of Oklahoma in the early 1900s.

Pickett, of course, was competing well before the National Finals Rodeo's inception, but according to rodeo records, no African-American steer wrestler has ever qualified for the NFR in its 36-year history.

That trend, however, could end this year. Cook, who is from Hockley, Texas, has a good shot at qualifying for the 1995 Finals, is 12th in the world standings with earnings of $ 37,151. The top 15 money-winners in each event qualify for the NFR.

Cook, 30, says that achievement would mean a lot to him, but he downplays its significance in rodeo history.

"I put God first and just try to stay on top of the game," he said. "I know with his help, I can do it."

Cook's most impressive win of the year so far came at Sam's Town Birthday Stampede and Rodeo in Tunica, Miss., where he threw his steer in 4.4 seconds to split the victory and pocket $ 6,897.

But two outstanding performances early in the winter got him going in the standings. First came the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show and Rodeo in Fort Worth, where he wrestled a steer in 3.7 seconds to grab $ 4,548. And then he won $ 3,376 in El Paso, where he won the first round with a 3.4-second run and the average with a total of 7.9 seconds on two head.

Cook hopes he can continue that winning trend for the next two months. The PRCA's 1995 regular season ends the last week in October.

Meanwhile, he says, it's important to keep focused. Cook, a farrier by trade, shoes horses for many of his fellow competitors to keep his mind straight.

"At Reno, I shod between 20 and 25 horses," he said. "Shoeing horses relaxes my mind. It keeps me level instead of being hyper and shooting the jive with the guys.

With a clear mind, he hopes to cash in at a few more rodeos so he will be among the sport's elite come NFR time.

Somewhere, Bill Pickett must be smiling.

Dodge Dakota tamed

Kelly Holt of Eustace, Texas, joined an elite club last Saturday at the Mesquite Championship Rodeo when he became only the sixth bull rider to ride the bounty bull Dodge Dakota. The 27-year-old cowboy's 78 points earned him $ 3,000.

Holt, a mounted guard for the Texas Department of Corrections when he's not competing in rodeos, said the key to his ride was surviving the first turn out of the chute. "You've got to stay on the middle of his back as long as possible," he said.

After the ride, he was joined by his wife, Amy. The check will help with her tuition at the University of Texas-Tyler.

The 1,800-pound bull has been ridden six times in 79 attempts at Mesquite since 1992 and will be kept out of competition this week.

The other bounty bull, Dodge Sport, carries a $ 6,000 bonus into this weekend's action. Daniel Ferruelo of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who has been living in Mesquite in an attempt to hone his bull riding skills, has drawn him Friday night.

Kowbell winners

Josh Moore of Joshua won the Kowbell Indoor Rodeo's Sunday night junior bull riding buckle series with a victory on the last day. He beat Jeff Lyons of Bedford for the honor.

Other series winners included Tracy Matthews of Alvarado in the Saturday night junior bull riding series; David High of Mansfield in the Sunday night senior bull riding; Chad Eubanks of Cleburne in the Sunday bareback series and Rendon's Donna Kemp in the Sunday barrel racing series.

The Kowbell will introduce its fall buckle series, which will feature the same five events as the summer series, this weekend.
Staff Writer Ed Knocke covers rodeo for The News. His column appears Thursday.

I know Ed. He is a good man, well-liked and respected. He's done other things at the DMN besides writing the rodeo column. He doesn't deserve to have his stories made fun of by a little pissant twit. And, no, I'm not Ed.

Being the rodeo beat guy for the DMN is an amazingly great job. As the piece cited shows, rodeo is like those other 19th century sports, boxing and horse racing. Eveyrone in it has a GREAT story to tell, and you the reporter will have the maximum opportunity to use your reporting and writing skills to tell those stories.
Hats off to Ed for recognizing this truth. Let me add one question. "I don't care about rodeo, the NBA, soccer, hockey, etc" is a thought process I cannot understand. If you're not that interesting in learning new stuff about the world, why the hell are you in journalism in the first place?

That trend, however, could end this year. Cook, who is from Hockley, Texas, has a good shot at qualifying for the 1995 Finals, is 12th in the world standings with earnings of $ 37,151. The top 15 money-winners in each event qualify for the NFR.

I'll echo what Mr. Gee said.
Buddy of mine was covering the Colorado stock show for one of the Denver papers...he had all sorts of great stories about the deal. And he was getting big play in the paper every day. I mean, he was telling me these stories about the Mexican rodeo and some of the young guys on the circuit, you know these stories would be knockout features if any kind of writer covered them.